When Hype Machine Drops the Little Guys, We All Lose:
An Open Letter to Bloggers and Blog Readers Everywhere
Music blog aggregator Hype Machine - one of the best sources of traffic, and new fans, for thousands of music bloggers - decided today to change their front page default setting, so that it only shows the top 100 music blogs. In response, Craig, one of my favorite folkbloggers, has posted a call for readers to help him break into the Hype Machine top 100.
Craig is a stellar blogger, and a keen critic of the modern folkworld; if I was going to vote for my own top 100, he would be right there near the top of the list. But while I admire Craig, I believe that that the changes at Hype Machine are very bad for blogging, and bad for music fans, too. And so I’m writing today to ask you NOT to support this change, or act to perpetuate it in any way.
Instead, I’d like to prevail on readers and bloggers everywhere to help spread the word, quickly and effectively, that this new change at Hype Machine is a threat to a diverse, well-populated music blogosphere.
And we need to act fast and decisively, before the very act of vying for one of those top spots starts pitting blog against blog.
My position, in a nutshell, is that default settings are powerfully dominant. And turning the front page of Hype Machine from a welcoming, fast-moving space of multiple voices to a commodified, slower-moving space populated by A-list bloggers would have a significant and severe effect on music blog readership, and thus on the possibility of discovering new blogs and music.
Here’s how I put it over at Hype Machine:
My basic thesis: the new default system is ANTI-COMMUNITY and ANTI-WEB, because it will weaken all smaller blogs, and strengthen all larger blogs, thus creating a widening gap of “haves” and “have nots” not much unlike that huge disparity in wealth currently causing the collapse of the global economy.
Consider: The new system REINFORCES the status of the top 100 by exposing ONLY them, and by making the smaller blogs (thousands of them) harder to find, and thus makes it that much harder for blogs to come in and out of that 100. In other words: such infrastructures weaken the small to add value to the strong. Sure, such infrastructures abound more and more online. But I believe they represent the commodification of the caste system of the web, and will ultimately reinforce the current status quo at the risk of slowing down evolution and change.
Don’t get me wrong: I love that, as a reaction to this change, a few dozen people have immediately added me to their favorites list. But this is small consolation for a system that only lets YOU get more hits by letting you “beat” and then obscure others vying for the top 100. I’m sorry, but I believe that this sort of competitive system is inherently anti-web, antithetical to the very nature of the social ebb and flow that make the internet what it is, and constantly improving and self-correcting.
That it also means less ad-wealth going to smaller blogs, and more going to bigger blogs, is part and parcel, if only a symptom of my real concern of social eye-awareness and visiting. But that last bit is not trivial, either. Instead, please note you just cost many newer blogs from ever becoming part of the top 100, and thus made it MUCH harder for new bloggers to ever be found, thus ever enter the fray as the next generation of new bloggers.
Note that my case is primarily built on an assumption that anything which makes it easier for new and smaller voices to be seen and found is good, and anything which obscures smaller and newer voices is bad. This is especially notable here, because the folks behind Hype Machine believe this to be true too.
See, four days ago, the Hype Machine blog proudly posted the following quote from web industry guru Terry McBride: “I love music blogs because they’re music fans. They’re authentic and passionate about music … All they’re doing is spreading the word about stuff they like. The authentic will rise to the top, which is why I like aggregators like The Hype Machine. I think it’s brilliant.”
The irony of touting a quote which names you as a prime example of a model in which “the authentic will rise to the top”, and then only four days later changing your own aggregator to one which keeps the authentic and new from rising anywhere as easily, is pretty obvious, I hope.
…
Look, I believe in community and diversity and personal choice, and I see the web as one of the best community spaces we’ve got. But in my real life, I’ve got two degrees in social theory, cultural change, and community potential in the online world, and I know that seemingly small actions like this one can have a significant effect on our range of experience, and thus on what our quality of life and breadth of choice might be.
For a long time, Hype Machine has been a great supporter of that world, by prioritizing a cacophony, while letting people pick favorites and make lists so that they can make their own sense out of that world. But their new model supports a very different kind of world — one which constantly reinforces a small group of ever-more-monolithic content sources, while smaller voices get drowned out, and become invisible. And I believe that such scenarios are bad for culture, bad for music, and bad for everyone.
And if you believe that, too, I hope you’ll help me do something about it.
Convinced? Concerned? Think I’m crazy? If you, too, have strong feelings on this issue, I’d encourage you to join the conversation, either through the comments here at Cover Lay Down or over at Hype Machine itself.
Category: Uncategorized
March 8th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
Hi, I’ve been reading your blog for several months since I found it via Hype Machine. I agree with everything you said about the changes made there. Most of my favorite blogs (like this one) are not in the top 100. I’m really disappointed with this change as well.
March 9th, 2009 at 12:23 am
I’d thought HM was broken, this was the first I’ve heard of it. What a nightmare.
March 9th, 2009 at 12:45 am
I never use HM - I found you by referral of another blog- Maybe it might take a while to find you, but like minded blogs should promote each other.
March 9th, 2009 at 5:22 am
Thanks for flagging this up - I wondered why HypeM had become boring recently
I think your strategy is the right one
Thanks for spending your time producing an interesting website.
March 9th, 2009 at 9:20 am
i really appreciate everything you’re saying here and in the comments section at the hype machine blog. we are having quite the discussion about it in the elbows forum as well.
there doesn’t seem to be much support for the change, but unfortunately nothing anyone’s saying seems to be having much of an effect on the hm’s decision making process so far. maybe if more people chime in–users, not just bloggers–it will.
March 9th, 2009 at 10:04 am
I agree with you, but it’s just a matter of changing the option in the header from “top 100″ to “all blogs,” isn’t it? The problem, I understand, is that the “all blogs” isn’t the default. But if I’m understanding this correctly, it’s not as if nobody can get to a non-100 blog (like mine) from the front page - they just need to work harder to get it. But as easy as the fix might be, I agree with your argument as a whole. Music as a whole loses when only the big guys are allowed to talk - and they’re all talking about the new Animal Collective or whathaveyou.
March 9th, 2009 at 10:45 am
Thanks for the support, folks.
Tim: You’re not wrong, but I think you’re underestimating the relentless power of the default setting. It’s not about CAN you change your viewpoint by clicking “view all”. It’s whether people will do that, how often, and how quickly. And, statistically, the answer here is “hardly ever”, especially for new users.
March 9th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Gah that’s frustrating! You’re spot on bh; I posted my own critique there too. Hopefully they’ll listen.
March 9th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
@BH 7 - Good point - actually, I never noticed that setting until you pointed it out. Hopefully we can generate enough of a backlash to get them to change it on their end - after all, it would be an extraordinarily simple fix. I find that the smaller blogs are much more interesting - they’re far less likely to simply regurgitate whatever is “big” (see my earlier comment re: Animal Collective).
March 9th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Great great post. Big fan of Craig too…I stumbled on your blog from one of your comments on ours…I put you up on our blogroll.
Laura
March 9th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
If the Hype Machine wants to focus on just the ‘Top 100′ blogs, so be it. It’s their loss and an opportunity for another aggregator to do the same thing, but specifically focus on the more niche blogs that don’t receive the stellar traffic stats yet.
With enough buy-in (translation: link love) from the now-marginalized blogs on HypeM that don’t make the cut for the Top 100, this could be a good alternative. After all isn’t choice the true essence of the web anyway? Be the change, my friends!
H.
March 9th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
It seems the feed is only on the Top 100, so people who like to read the feeds and play the tunes in something like Netvibes can’t see the more interesting blogs.
March 9th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
How do they determine the Top 100 blogs? You make some good points, it sort of defeats their stated purpose.
March 9th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Your thesis sounds right to me. I will say, however, that I found you on another blog and have never been to Hype Machine…. but now in principle I won’t bother to find out what I’ve been missing.
Post good tunes, write good editorials and I believe people will find you. I did.
March 9th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
Here, here BH. Like the flurry of posts over on Elbo.ws forums - “haves and have nots” and if you are not a “top 100″ you are definitely “not having” as much potential traffic or exposure to a vast pool of new readers.
If my math is correct, my blog is about 25 times “less popular” than the #100 blog (which just so happens is listed twice, so they are #99 & #100) - I didn’t realize how minuscule I was until this change….
March 10th, 2009 at 5:01 am
Kudos for the initiative. As a “small” blogger I definitely support your position in this matter.
I thought one of the underlying purposes of the Hype Machine was to expose people to new and exciting music and artists (and different views around them), but now it seems that it creates a sort of a music blogosphere mainstream and sticks with it. The resulting situation is especially difficult with the constant “infringement” harassment going on on some blogs (which doesn’t occur on the “big” blogs. So, to avoid that “smaller” blogs may turn to more indie and un-signed artists that have their hopes of exposure shattered once again.
I hope the Hype Machine changes its decision quickly.
March 10th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Hype Machine sortiert aus…
Wie ich bei das klienicumlesen konnte, selektiert Hype Machine und sortiert per sofort aus: Ab jetzt werden nur noch Blogposts der TOP 100 auf der Startseite präsentiert (alle anderen Blogs fallen dadurch ein paar Klicks nach hinten). Ob die Quali…
March 10th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Well written, Boyhowdy - as usual.
I know many music blogs depended on the Hype Machine as a way to refer new visitors to their blogs, but I’m not too concerned about their recent change to only feature the top 100 blogs by default. It all seems like one big popularity contest anyway.
While I can appreciate the Machine’s many features at showcasing what many blogs are writing about, it was rare that they actually pointed me in the way of any new musical discoveries.
And there are a good many of the blogs featured that don’t really ‘talk’ about the music - it’s just song downloads and links to other sites.
I want to know about the music. Why it’s effecting. Who that artist really is. What inspires them? And for that, I’ve always relied on my favorite music blogs. And rarely, have they steered me wrong.
March 10th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Left a comment on Hype Machine and took them out of my bookmarks list.
March 11th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Well, I suppose if everyone always uses the ‘view all’ option they will see this in the stats and change the default again.
If not, eventually we will all go to some cool new site to find interesting new music and blogs
March 11th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Here here. As a “smaller blogger” One of the major ways I expand my readership is through Hype, so it’s sad to see them take steps to create more of a monoculture.
I can appreciate their concerns, but diversity is precisely what makes the music blogging community so strong.
March 11th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
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March 11th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Great post. I just found your blog and post through ninebullets. I also think that indie music will suffer as a consequence of Hype Machine’s actions. In my experience the “top” blogs tend to cover the current “it” band and a lot of the smaller artists get left behind. That’s where the “small” blogs come it! As the lead aggregator, HM should recognize this fact. What’s next, HM will only aggregate songs from major labels?
March 11th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
We still love the little guys/gals and new blogs. It should be about introducing bloggers to bloggers, and new readers to your blogs…You are spot on.
March 11th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
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